Gathered into One

Life in the Trinity

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Ephesians 4:1-6

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. Our thoughts and prayers and our voices lifted in song will dance with the three persons of the One God...

I'm preaching this Sunday... and I will do my best at putting words around the faith phenomenon that we affirm almost every week in The Nicene or Apostles' Creed.

As we worship the triune God we are enfolded into a community that is both mystical and real. I realize that the more words that I use that try to explain the concept the more befuddled I (and the listeners) may become.... better to attempt to paint a word picture that opens up the experience of being in the presence of the Triune God... It is a real experience that spills over with mystical overtones.

View a picture of a worshipping congregation with the eye of objectivity, and it looks like any other crowd of folks (it's real)...but look at it under the lens of prayer and you see the Spirit meandering through every glance, every gesture and every word...(it's mystical)

It is mystical because it is something we ourselves can't create or sustain. In reality, we gather because we choose to. But in a mystical sense, we gather because the Lord God has instilled in each one of us a deep need to do so. At the root of every human voice saying: "Come to church" is the Word of the Lord saying "Come to me!"

The entire gathering of the people in the extraordinary (and mysterious)presence of God is affected in very real ways.... Relationships are literally transformed in some way. Our priorities and general understanding of what is possible are molded more closely in line with our calling... to love and glorify God and serve others in His precious name.

All I can say is you might get a more clear idea of what we are talking about by setting aside your rational/cognitive powers.... see what happens if you simply gaze prayerfully at what is before you and wonder about its power to create new life, to accompany you as you surrender to the hope to love and serve others, and to reveal, in the midst of every situation, what is REAL.